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A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



"Fighting McCooRs." 



REPRINTED FROM THE PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



SCOTCH-IRISH SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



New York 

The James Kempster Printing Company 

117-119-131 Liberty Street 



4^ 



6 A 



(Froiii the I'ditori.-il |i;ij;i* of t lie New York TriliiiiK'. .Iiinc 13, 1 903.) 



"ON FAME'S ETERNAL CAMPING GROUND," 

General Alexander McDowell McCook, who died jes- 
terdaj', was perhaps, as a soldier, the most prominent 
of all the members of the two Ohio families that gave 
both fathers and fourteen sons to the military service of 
the nation. The lapse of years has obscured the indi- 
vidual achievements which make ui> a record astonisIiin<^ 
and g^lorious, if not absolutely unprecedented under any 
flag; but the appellation of "'the fighting McCooks" is 
still almost ;is familiar as his own name to every Ameri- 
can boy. 

It is a title which contains not the faintest suggestion 
of such reckless and violent propensities as would have 
tainted the honor of wearing it. It was conferred bj' pop- 
ular acclaim on men of peaceful temper but heroic strain, 
who simply could not resist the country's call for sons 
who loved her well enough to die proudly' and gratefully 
in her defence. The mists of time have enveloped those 
fields of valor and sacrifice, but the thought of such a 
race of patriots will always touch the heart and stir the 
blood of ever}' one who is fit to be an American citizen. 






A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



"Fighting McCooks." 



REPRINTED FROM THE PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



SCOTCH-IRISH SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



V 



THE FIGHTING McCOOKS. 



BY HOWE. 



One of the best-known Scotch-Irish families who have 
contributed their full share to the honorable record of 
that race in the United States are the Ohio McCooks, who 
acquired a wide reputation during the Civil War as the 
"Fighting McCooks." In the various current notices of 
them they are spoken of as one family, but were really 
two families, the sons of Major Daniel McCook and Dr. 
John McCook. Of the former family, there were engaged 
in military service the father. Major Daniel McCook, 
Surgeon-Major Latimer A. McCook, General George W. 
McCook, General Robert L. McCook, General Alexander 
McD. McCook, General Daniel McCook, Jr., General Ed- 
win Stanton McCook, Private Charles Morris McCook, and 
Colonel John J. McCook. Another son. Midshipman J. 
James McCook, died in the naval service before the 
rebellion. Thus the father and nine sons of that family, 
ten in all, honorably served their country. 

Of the latter family, there were engaged in the service 
General Edward M. McCook, General Anson G. McCook, 
Chaplain Henry C. McCook, Commander Roderick S. 
McCook, U. S. N., and Lieutenant John J. McCook— five 
in all. This makes a total of fifteen, every son of both 
families commissioned officers except Charles, who was 
killed in the first battle of Bull Run, and who declined a 
commission in the regular army, preferring to serve as a 
private of volunteers. 



6 The Fighting McCooks 

The two families have been familiarly distinguished 
as the "Tribe of Dan" and the "Tribe of John." 

7. The Daniel McCook Branch. 

Major Daniel McCook, the second son of George 
McCook and Mary McCormack, was born June 20, 1798, 
at Cannonsburg, Pa., the seat of Jefferson College, where 
he received his education. On August 28, 1817, he married 
Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham Latimer, of 
Washington, Pa. In 1826 they removed to New Lisbon, 
Ohio, and later to Carrollton, Ohio. Mr. McCook was an 
active member and an elder for many years of the 
Presbyterian Church of Carrollton, organizing and con- 
ducting as superintendent the first Sunday school of that 
Church. 

At the beginning of the war he was in Washington, 
D. C, and, although sixty-three years of age, at once 
tendered his services to President Lincoln. Each of his 
eight sons then living also promptly responded to the call 
of the President for troops. When the rebel general, John 
Morgan, made his raid into Ohio, Major McCook was 
stationed at Cincinnati, and joined the troops sent in his 
pursuit. Morgan undertook to recross the Ohio River 
at Bulfington Island. Major McCook led an advance 
party to oppose and intercept the crossing. In the 
skirmish that took place he was mortally wounded, and 
died next day, July 21, 1863, in the sixty-sixth year of his 
age. He was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, near 
Cincinnati. 

In a proclamation to the people of Ohio, announcing 
the capture of John Morgan, dated Columbus, July 26, 
1863, Governor David Tod, among other things, said : 

"The losses on our side have been trifling, so far as 



The Fighting McCooks 7 

numbers are concerned; but I am pained to be compelled 
to announce that a few gallant spirits have been taken from 
us. Prominent among the number is the brave Major 
Daniel McCook, the honored father of the heroic boys who 
bear his name, and who have won so much glory and re- 
nown for our arms in this great struggle. Major McCook, 
although advanced in years, had imperilled his life as a 
volunteer upon many of our battlefields. Believing that 
he could be of service in ridding the state of her invaders 
he volunteered and fell in the engagement near Bufflng- 
ton Island. His memory will be cherished by all, and the 
sincere sympathies of all true jjatriots will be given to his 
widow and children." 

He was a man of commanding presence, an ardent 
patriot, and an earnest Christian. He possessed a most 
gentle and amiable disposition, combined with the highest 
personal courage, untiring energy, and great force of 
character. He ruled his household in the fear of the 
Lord, and died as he had lived, in the active performance 
of his duty. 

His wife, Martha Latimer, daughter of Abraham 
Latimer and Mary Greer, was born at Washington, Pa., 
March 8, 1802. Her maternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, 
but on the father's side they were English, coming origi- 
nally from Leicestershire, and from the family which gave 
the martyr Bishop Hugh Latimer to the English Eeforma- 
tion. 

During the war of the rebellion Mrs. McCook was in 
a peculiarly difficult position. Her husband and eight 
sons were all in the service. No battle could take place 
but some of her loved ones were in danger. Each succeed- 
ing 3^ear brought death to a member of her family upon 



8 The Fighting McCooKs 

the battlefield. Her husband and three sons were thus 
taken from her ; and the others were so frequently wound- 
ed that it seemed as if in her old age she was to be bereft 
of her entire family. Her life during those long years of 
anxiety was well-nigh a continuous prayer for her 
country and for her husband and sons who had given 
themselves for its defense. This patriotic woman well 
illustrates the heroic sufferings endured by the women 
of the republic no less than by the men. 

Mrs. McCook died November 10, 1879, in the seventy- 
eighth year of her age, at New Lisbon, Ohio, and was buried 
beside her husband in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati. 

The children of this couple are as follows: 

1. Latimer A. McCook, M. D., was born at Cannons- 
burg, Pa., April 26, 1820. He was educated at Jefferson 
College, Cannonsburg, studied medicine with his uncle, 
Dr. George McCook, a physician of great skill and 
eminence, and received his degree from Jefferson Medical 
College, of Philadelphia. He entered the army in 1861 as 
assistant surgeon, and was soon promoted to be surgeon, 
with the rank of major, of the Thirty-first Regiment, 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, known as "John A. Logan's 
Eegiment." 

He served throughout the campaigns of the Army of 
the Tennessee, from the capture of Forts Henry and 
Donaldson to the end of the war, and while caring for the 
wounded of his regiment, during action, he was himself 
twice wounded — once in the trenches before Vicksburg, 
and again at Pocotaligo Bridge, in General Sheridan's 
movement northward from Savannah. He survived the 
war, but was broken down in health, and died August 23, 
1869, from general debility, resulting from wounds and 



The Fighting McCooks 9 

exposure incident to his service in the army, and was 
buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati. 

2. George Wythe McCook was born at Cannonsburg, 
Pa., November 2, 1821. He graduated from the Ohio Uni- 
versity, at Athens, and studied law with and afterwards 
becai^e the partner of Edwin M. Stanton, the great War 
Secretary. He served as an officer in the Third Ohio 
Regiment throughout the Mexican War, and returned as 
its commander. He was Attorney-General of the State 
of Ohio in 1854 - 56, and edited the first volume of the 
*'Ohio State Eeports." He was one of the first four 
brigadier-generals appointed by the Governor of Ohio to 
command the troops from that State at the outbreak of 
the rebellion, but the condition of his health prevented him 
from taking any command that required continued ab- 
sence from home. However, he organized and commanded 
for short periods several Ohio regiments, among them the 
157th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during its service in the 
field, in the summer of 1864. 

He was the Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio 
in 1871, but his health undermined by his service during 
the Mexican and Civil War broke down during the can- 
vass, and he was compelled to abandon the campaign. 
He and the Rev. Charles C. Beatty D.D. were the largest 
contributors to the erection of the Second Presbyterian 
Church at Steubenville, Ohio, of which he was a trustee. 
He died December 28, 1877, and was buried at Steuben- 
ville. 

3. John James McCook, born at Cannonsburg, Pa., 
December 28, 1823, was educated at the United States 
Naval Academy. While serving as midshipman on the 
United States frigate "Delaware," off the coast of South 



10 The Fighting McCooks 

America, he was taken ill with a fever, following long- 
continued exposure while on duty. He died March 30, 
1842, and was buried in the English burying ground at 
Rio Janeiro, Brazil. Admiral Farragut, in his autobiog- 
raphy, pays a high tribute to the personal character and 
professional ability of Midshipman McCook. 

4. Robert Latimer McCook was born at New Lisbon, 
Ohio, December 28, 1827. He studied law in the office of 
Stanton & McCook, at Steubenville, then removed to 
Cincinnati, and in connection with Judge J. B. Stallo 
secured a large practice. When the news reached Cin- 
cinnati that Fort Sumter had been fired upon, he organ- 
ized and was commissioned colonel of the Ninth Ohio 
Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, enlisting among the Ger- 
mans, a thousand men in less than two days. He was 
ordered to West Virginia, put in command of a brigade, 
and made the decisive campaign there under McClellan. 
His brigade was then transferred to the Army of the Ohio, 
and took a most active part in the battle of Mills Spring, 
in Kentucky, where he was severely wounded. The rebel 
forces were driven from their lines by a bayonet charge of 
General McCook's brigade, and so closely pursued for 
many miles that their organization as an armed force was 
completely destroyed. Mills Spring is one of the very few, 
if not the onlv recorded case, where such results followed 
a battle during the Civil War. 

General IMcCook rejoined his brigade before his 
wound had healed, and continued to command it when 
he was unable to mount a horse. His remarkable 
soldierly qualities procured him the rank of brigadier-gen- 
eral and the command of a division. He met his death 
August G, 1862, while on the march near Salem,' Ala. He 



The Fighting McCooks 11 

had been completely prostrated by his open wound and a 
severe attack of dysentery, and was lying in an ambulance, 
which was driven along in the interval between two regi- 
ments of his division. A small band of local 
guerrillas, commanded by Frank Gurley, dashed 
out of ambush, surrounded the ambulance and dis- 
covered that it contained an officer of rank, who 
was lying on the bed, undressed and unable to rise. 
They asked who he was, and, seeing that the Federal 
troops were approaching, shot him as he lay and made 
good their escape, as the nature of the country and their 
thorough familiarity with it easily enabled them to do. 
This brutal assassination of General McCook aroused 
intense feeling throughout the country. The murdered 
commander was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, and 
his devoted soldiers and friends, at the close of the war, 
erected a monument to his memory in Cincinnati. 

5. Major-General Alexander McDowell McCook was 
born on a farm near New Lisbon, Columbiana County, 
Ohio, April 22, 1831. He entered the United States 
Military Academy, at West Point, and graduated in the 
class of 1852. During the five years following his gradu- 
ation he saw active service on the western frontier, and 
in campaigns against the Indians, chiefly in New Mexico. 
This service was recognized by special reference in the 
annual reports of General Scott then commanding the 
Army, and by his transfer to West Point as an instructor. 

At the opening of the war he was promptly made 
colonel of the First Ohio Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, 
which he led among the very earliest troops to the relief 
of the capital, and commanded at Bull Run, or Manassas 
where his regiment with the Second Ohio, acted as the rear 



12 The Fighting McCooKs 

guard of the defeated forces. He became a brigadier-gen- 
eral in September, 1861, and commanded a division under 
General Buell in the Army of the Ohio. He was made a 
major-general for distinguished services at the battle of 
Shiloh, and was placed in command of the Twentieth Army 
Corps, forming the right wing of the Army of the Cum- 
berland, with which he served during the campaigns of 
Perryville, Stone's River, Tullahoma, and Chicamauga. 
General McCook subsequently commanded one of the 
trans- IMississippi departments. 

As a professional soldier his record in the regular 
armv of the United States is as follows : 

Appointed brevet second lieutenant, Third Infantry, 
June 30, 1852 ; second lieutenant, June 30, 1854 ; first lieu- 
tenant, December 6, 1858; colonel, First Ohio Volunteers, 
April 16, 1861; captain. United States Army, May 14, 
1861; brigadier-general volunteers, September 3, 1861; 
major-general volunteers, July 17, 1862; lieutenant- 
colonel, Twenty-sixth Infantry, INIarch 5, 1867; trans- 
ferred to Tenth Infantry, March 15, 1869; colonel, Sixth 
Infantry, December 16, 1880, brigadier-general. United 
States Army, July 11, 1890; major-general, November 9, 
1894 ; retired from active service under the law, April 22, 
1895. Brevetted in regular service for gallant and meri- 
torious service during Civil War as major, July 21, 1861 
(Bull Run); lieutenant-colonel March 3, 1862, (capture 
of Nashville, Tenn.) ; colonel, April 7, 1862, (Shiloh) ; 
brigadier-general, March 13, 1865, (Perryville, Ky) ; 
major-general, March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious 
services in field during the war. Represented United 
States at coronation of Czar of Russia, Moscow, May 1-24, 
1896; member commission appointed by President to in- 



The Fighting McCooks 13 

vestigate War Department, during war with Spain, Sep- 
tember 23, 1898, to February 10, 1899.* 

6. Daniel McCook, Jr., was born at Carrollton, Ohio, 
July 22, 1834. He was rather delicate and overstudious, 
and with a view to improving his health, entered 
Alabama University, at Florence, from which he 
graduated with honor. He returned to Ohio with health 
greatly improved, and entered the law office of Stanton 
& McCook, at Steubenville. 

After admission to the bar in Ohio, he removed to 
Leavenworth, Kansas, where he formed a partnership with 
William Tecumseh Sherman and Thomas Ewing. When 
the Civil War opened that law office closed, and each of 
the partners soon became general officers. General Sher- 
man at the close of the war being second in rank to Gen- 
eral Grant. 

An ardent Unionist, upon the secession of some of the 
southern states, and long ere Sumter was fired upon, 
Daniel McCook had joined with other Leavenworth citi- 
zens in organizing several companies of local militia for 
the time of need, which they saw was inevitably coming. 
He was made captain of one of these companies called 
the "Shields Guards" in the local records, although it ap- 
pears that this name was subsequently changed to 
"Leavenworth State Guard." How early this company was 
formed is not positively known, but it was probably in 
January, 1861. The first private, or individual, tender 
of troops made to the government, so far as the printed 



*Smce the publication of the above sketch in the proceedings of the Scotch- 
Irish Society of America, Major-General A. McD. McCook died at Dayton, 
Ohio, on June 12th, 1903, and was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, Cin- 
cinnati, Oliio. 



14 The Fighting McCooks 

records of the rebellion show, was that of one Chas. H. 
Volk, "captain of Elk Artillery No. 1," of Elk County, Pa. 
It is a historical fact worth recording that Captain Daniel 
McCook stands of record as having made the second ten- 
der of local troops to the Washington authorities. Cap- 
tain McCook's offer was couched in the following terms: 

Leavenworth City^ Kan.^ February 20, 1861. 

Hon. Joseph Holt^ 

Secretary of War. 
Sir : — I have the honor to tender to you and the govern- 
ment the service of the volunteer militia company, con- 
sisting of sixty rank and file, infantry, which I at present 
command. We are willing to serve in any capacity, and 
any way, and against any powers which the public need 
may require, or the constituted authorities order. Hoping 
that you will at least give us an equal chance, I remain, 
with sentiments of highest respect. 

Your obedient servant, 

Daniel McCook, 
Captain Leavenworth State Guard. 

No record of any reply to Captain McCook's tender of 
troops can be found in the War Department, but doubt- 
less one was made. At any rate, he was not long in get- 
ting into the service. Under the first formal call by the 
President for volunteers to enforce the national authority 
the First Kansas Volunteer Infantry was quickly organ- 
ized at Leavenworth, and the "Leavenworth State Guard" 
was one of the ten companies composing it, with Daniel 
McCook as its captain. Inside of two weeks this new regi- 
ment was on its way to the southern Kansas border to 
meet the advance of the rebels. 

Captain McCook served under the gallant General 
Lyon at the small but important and furious engagement 



The Fighting McCooKs 15 

at Wilson's Creek. He then served as Chief of Staif of 
the First Division of the Army of the Ohio in the Shiloh 
campaign, and became colonel of the Fifty-second Ohio 
Regiment of Volunteer Infantry in the summer of 1862. 
He was assigned to the command of a brigade in General 
Sheridan's division, and as such continued to serve with 
the Army of the Cumberland. 

He was selected by his old law partner, General Sher- 
man, to lead the assault on Kennesaw Mountain on June 
27, 1864. After all the arrangements for the assault 
had been made, the brigade was formed in regiment front 
and five deep. Just before the assault Colonel McCook 
recited to his men in a perfectly calm manner the stanza 
from Macaulay's "Horatius" in which occur these lines: 

Then out spake brave Horatius, 

The captain of the gate: 
"To every man upon this earth 

Death cometh soon or late. 
And how can man die better 

Than facing fearful odds. 
For the ashes of his fathers 

And the temples of his gods?" 

Then he gave the word of command and dashed 
forward. He had reached the top of the enemy's works, 
and was encouraging his men to follow, when he was 
riddled with minie balls and fell back into their arms, 
v,'Ounded unto death. For his courage and gallantry in 
this assault which was one of, if not the most difficult 
and desperate of the war, he was promoted to the full 
rank of brigadier-general, an honor which he did not live 
to enjoy, as he survived but a few days. He died July 
17, 1864, and was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, 
Cincinnati. 



16 The Fighting McCooks 

General Sherman never failed to express his admiration 
for the patriotic spirit, the gallantry and soldierly abilities 
of his old friend and former law partner, who, in the per- 
formance of his duty, went to the assault at Kennesaw 
and to his death, as promptly and steadily as he ever 
marched to parade. 

In a letter to a personal friend on December 28, 1886, 
General Sherman, among other things, wrote as follows: 

"Both political parties in 1864 urged on our soldiers to 
acts of heroism. Without such men as my old law part- 
ner at Leavenworth, Dan McCook, who, with father and 
five brothers, was killed in the Civil War, we now could 
have no government, nothing would be left to us but degra- 
dation and ruin. 

"Dan McCook when leading his brigade in the assault 
at Kennesaw was shot down upon the enemy works and 
died of his wounds. I ordered that assault and thereby 
occasioned his death. You can readily understand how 
deeplj^ I feel about it, for no adequate return can ever be 
made, by any nation or people for such services. 

"The government of the United States exists alone be- 
cause of such sacrifices as Dan McCook made of his young 
life." .... 

Very truly, your friend, 

(Signed) W. T. Sherman. 

7. Edwin Stanton McCook was born at Carrollton, 
Ohio, March 26, 1837. He was educated at the United 
States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, but, preferring the 
military arm of the service, when the Civil War began he 
recruited a company and joined the Thirty-first Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, of which his friend, John A. Logan, 
was colonel. lie served with his regiment at the battles of 
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, where he was severely 
wounded. In his promotions he succeeded General 



The Fighting McCooRs 17 

Logan, and followed him in the command of regiment, 
brigade, and division throughout the Vicksburg and 
other campaigns under Grant, in the Chattanooga and 
Atlanta campaigns, and in the march to the sea under 
Sherman. 

He was promoted to the rank of brigadier and 
brevet major-general for his services in these campaigns. 
He was three times severely wounded, but survived the 
war. While acting Governor of Dakota, and while oc- 
cupying the chair and presiding over a i^ublic meeting. 
September 11, 1873, he was shot and killed by a man w^ho 
was not in sympathy with the object of the meeting, and 
was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati. 

8. Charles Morris McCook was born at Carrollton, 
Ohio, November 13, 1843. He was a member of the fresh- 
man class at Kenyon College when the war began, and, 
although less than eighteen years of age, volunteered as 
a private soldier in the Second Ohio Regiment of Infantry 
for the three months' service. Secretary Stanton offered 
him a lieutenant's commission in the regular army, but he 
preferred to serve as a volunteer. By his soldiery char- 
acteristics and close attention to duty he soon won the 
respect and admiration of his comrades, and the confi- 
dence of his officers. 

At the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, Charles 
McCook served with his regiment, which was covering the 
retreat of the shattered army. As he passed a field hospital 
the lad saw his father, who had volunteered as a nurse, at 
work among the wounded, and stopped to assist him the 
regiment passing on. As he started to rejoin his company 
young McCook was surrounded by an officer and several 
troopers of the famous Black Horse Cavalry, who 



18 The Fighting McCooKs 

demanded his surrender. His musket was loaded, and he 
quickly disabled the officer, and, as he was highly trained 
in the bayonet exercise, he kept the other horsemen at bay. 
His father, seeing the odds against the boy, and hearing the 
repeated demands for his surrender, called out to him to 
give himself up. To this he replied, "Father, I will never 
surrender to a rebel," and a moment later he was shot 
down by one of the cavalrymen who then rode away in 
pursuit of the retreating troops. His father ran to him 
and while holding him in his arms, the dying lad sent a 
loving message of farewell to his mother and then said, 
"Tell her that I refused to surrender, that I am not afraid 
of death, that I am glad to die for my country." When the 
father leaned down to catch the last word, as the voice grew 
weaker and less distinct, he heard him repeat over and 
over again a favorite quotation from Horace "Dulce et 
decorum est pro patria mori" — it is sweet and glorious 
to die for one's country; words which had inspired his 
young life as a student at Kenyon College, and were 
fittingly shown forth in his untimely death. The aged 
father removed his remains from the field, and they were 
afterwards buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati. 
9. John James McCook the ninth and youngest son, was 
born at Carrollton, Ohio, May 25, 1845. He was a student 
at Kenyon College when the war began, and, after com- 
pleting his freshman year, enlisted in Company E of the 
Fifty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was refused 
muster because of his youth but accompanied the regi- 
ment to the field as a volunteer aide to the brigade com- 
mander, lie was promoted to a first lieutenancy in the 
Sixth Ohio Cavalry on September 12, 1862, and later was 
assigned to duty on the staff of Major-General Thomas L. 



The Fighting McCooKs 19 

Crittenden, commanding a corps of the Army of the Ohio, 
which subsequently became the Twenty-first Corps of the 
Armv of the Cumberland. 

He served with the troops commanded by Generals 
Nelson and Wright in resisting Kirby Smith's invasion 
of Kentucky and in the campaigns of Perryville, Stone's 
Elver, Tullahoma, Chicamauga, Chattanooga and Mission- 
ary Eidge, with the Western armies, and in General 
Grant's campaign with the Army of the Potomac, from the 
battle of the Wilderness to the crossing of the James Eiver. 
He was commissioned a captain and aid-de-camp of United 
States volunteers in September, 1863, and was brevetted 
major of volunteers for gallant and meritorious services in 
action at Shady Grove, Va., where he was severely and 
dangerously wounded. He was afterwards brevetted lieu- 
tenant-colonel and colonel for gallant and meritorious 
services in the same camimign. 

Colonel McCook still survives, the only member of a 
family of ten when the war began, and is a lawyer engaged 
in active practice in New York City. For a number of years 
he has been the legal adviser and active in the management 
of many important financial, insurance, and railway 
corporations. Colonel McCook gives much attention to 
educational matters, and is an active Trustee of 
Princeton University and a director of Princeton Theo- 
logical Seminary. He has received the following uni- 
versitv degrees: A. B. and A. M. from Kenyon College, 
Honorary A. M. from Princeton, LL. B. from Harvard, 
and LL.D. from the University of Kansas and from 
Lafavette College. Colonel McCook is a member of the 
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, of New York. Having 
been appointed by his Presbytery a member of the Prose- 



20 The Fighting McCooKs 

cuting Committee, in the now celebrated Briggs heresy 
case, Colonel McCook, by reason of the ability, industry 
and knowledge of the theological and critical questions 
involved, is credited with having done much to bring that 
case to a successful conclusion and in securing the 
deliverance upon, and testimony of the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church to the integrity of the Scrip- 
tures, as opposed to the so-called higher critical views of 
Dr. Briggs and his followers. 

Colonel McCook is an active and consistent Republican 
in politics, and his party and public services were recog- 
nized by President McKinley inviting him to a place in his 
first cabinet. 

The following is an abstract of the record and services 
of Brevet-Colonel John James McCook, A. D. C. United 
States Volunteers, compiled from the Memorial Reunion 
volume of the Fiftv-second Ohio Volunteer Infantrv : 

Enlisted as private Company E, Fifty-second Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry, August 12, 1862, but he was refused 
muster because under age. Accompanied regiment to front 
acting as volunteer aide-de-camp to brigade commander. 
Appointed first lieutenant Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, 
September 12, 1862. Assigned to duty as acting aide-de- 
camp on staff of Colonel Daniel McCook, commanding 
thirty-sixth brigade, eleventh division, third corps, Army 
of the Ohio. Appointed and commissioned captain and 
aide-de-camp. United States Volunteers, June 18, 1863, 
to date from December 18, 1862. Mustered out as first lieu- 
tenant Sixth Ohio Cavalry June 24, 1863. Assigned to duty 
December 1, 1862, and served as aide-de-camp on staff of 
General Thomas L. Crittenden, commanding twenty-first 
corps. Army of the Cumberland, to November, 1863, and 



The Fighting McCooks 31 

first division, ninth corps, Army of the Potomac, May- 
June, 18G4. Temporary assignment as additional aide-de- 
camp to ^Major-General George H. Thomas, headquarters 
Army of the Cumberland, November, 1863, to January, 
1864, participating in the following battles and campaigns : 
Served with the Fifty-second Ohio Infantry, the rear 
guard covering retreat Nelson's forces from Richmond, 
Ky., to Louisville, Ky., August 30 to September 5, 1862. 
Battle of Perryville, Ky., October 8, 1862. (Special 
mention in official reports.) March to Nashville, Tenn., 
October 20 to November 7, 1862. Advance on Mur- 
freesboro, Tenn., December 26-30, 1862. Battle of Stone 
River, December 30-31 and January 1-3, 1863. (Special 
mention and recommended for promotion.) Middle Ten- 
nessee or Tullahoma campaign, June 21-July 15, 1863. 
(Special mention for efficient services.) Occupation of 
Middle Tennessee, passage of Cumberland Mountains and 
Chicamauga, Ga., campaign, August 16-September 22. 
1863. Battle of Chicamauga, Ga., September 19-20. 
(Special mention for gallantry.) Operations about Chatta- 
nooga, Tenn. Battle of Chattanooga and assault and cap- 
ture of ]Missionary Ridge, with Harker's brigade of Sheri- 
dan's division, November 25, 1863, General Grant's cam- 
paign in Virginia, May-June, 1864. Battles of the Wilder- 
ness, May 5-7; of Spottsylvania, ]May 8-12; of River Po, 
May 9-10; of Spottsylvania Court House, May 12-26. 
Operations and engagements on line of the North 
Anna River, ]May 23-26. Operations on line of the 
Pamunky River, May 26-28. Operations and engagements 
on line of the Tolopotomoy, May 28-31. Shady Grove, May 
30. Wounded at Shady Grove but remained on duty. 
Battles about Cold Harbor, June 1-3. Bethesda Church, 



22 The Fighting McCooks 

June 2-3. (Special mention for gallantry in the above 
engagements and for faithful and eflflcient services through- 
out the campaign.) Absent on leave because of wounds 
till October. Resigned October 13, 1864, and honorably 
discharged from service November 1, 1864. Endorsement 
of Major-General Thomas L. Crittenden, upon the resigna- 
tion of John J. McCook, captain and aide-de-camp United 
States Volunteers, October 10, 1864 : 

"Within resignation approved and its acceptance 
recommended. Captain McCook ran away from school 
when sixteen years old to enter the army. He has served 
faithfully and gallantly in several campaigns and in many 
engagements and battles. He is at present incapacitated 
from further active service from a wound received in bat- 
tle which requires constant surgical attention. He should 
be honorably discharged. 

"Captain McCook's father and three brothers have been 
killed in battle, and all the other members of his family 
are in the service. With such a family and personal 
record, I am constrained to refer to it when parting with 
a valued staff officer, and recommending the acceptance 
of his resignation. 

"(Signed) T. L. Crittenden^ 

"Major-General, U. S. Vols." 

Brevetted major "for gallantry in action at Shady 
Grove, Va., May 30, 1864," and lieutenant-colonel and 
colonel United States Volunteers to date from March 13, 
1865, "for gallant and meritorious services." 



\ 



The Fighting McCooKs 23 

The Second Subdivision of the Family 
Includes the Following Members 

//. The John McCook Branch. 

Dr. John McCook was born and educated at Cannons- 
burg, Pa., the seat of Jefferson College ; was a man of fine 
presence, genial nature, and a physician of unusual 
ability. His wife was born at Hartford, Ct., of an old 
New England family, and was a woman of rare culture. 
She was remarkable for her gift of song and musical 
attainments, and her fine intellect and sprightly manner. 
She greatly excelled in reading aloud, and taught her 
sons this art, instructing them also in declamation and 
composition before these branches were introduced into 
the schools of the neighborhood. She was particularly 
fond of poetry, and could render from memory chapters 
of Scott's "Marmion" and "Lady of the Lake," as well as 
the poems of Burns. Her influence was decided upon the 
character of her five sons. 

Dr. McCook practiced medicine for many years in New 
Lisbon, Ohio, whence he removed to Steubenville. He 
was an ardent patriot, and, although a lifelong Democrat, 
joined the Union-Kepublican party and gave the whole 
weight of his influence and service to the support of the 
government during the Civil War. He died just after its 
close, October 11, 1865, at the headquarters of his son. 
General Anson G. McCook, in Washington, D. C, during 
a temporary visit, and was buried at Steubenville, Ohio, 
by the side of his wife, who had preceded him just six 
months. 

He united with the Presbyterian Church of New 
Lisbon, Ohio, together with his wife, after the birth of 
all their children. The latter were baptized on the same 



24 The Fighting McCooKs 

Sabbath by the late Dr. A. O. Patterson. Dr. McCook 
was a warm friend of Sunday schools, and was superin- 
tendent for years of the school of the First Church of 
Steubenville, under the late Dr. H. G. Comingo. 
The children of the above couple are as follows: 

1. Major-General Edward Moody McCook was born at 
Steubenville, Ohio, June 15, 1833. He was one of the 
earliest settlers in the Pike's Peak region, where he had 
gone to practice his profession, law. He represented that 
district in the Legislature of Kansas, before the division 
of the Territory. He was temporarily in Washington in 
the troubled era preceding the war, and by a daring feat 
as a volunteer secret agent for the government won such 
approbation that he was appointed into the regular army 
as a lieutenant of cavalry. At the outbreak of the 
rebellion he was appointed major of the Second Indiana 
Cavalry, rose rapidly to the ranks of colonel, brigadier, 
and major-general, and after brilliant and effective 
service, retired at the close of the war with the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel in the regular army. His most diffi- 
cult and dangerous service, perhaps, was penetrating the 
enemy's lines by way of diversion previous to Sherman's 
march to the sea. He returned from this "forlorn hope," 
having inflicted great damage upon the enemy, defeated 
and captured a large number, whom he was compelled to 
release, and retired in the face of Hood's entire army. 
He resigned from the regular army to accept the appoint- 
ment of United States Minister to the Sandwich Islands. 
He was subsequently twice appointed Governor of 
Colorado Territory by President Grant. 

2. Brigadier-General Anson George McCook was born 
at Steubonville, Ohio, October 10, 1835. He was educated 



The Fighting McCooKs 35 

in the public schools of New Lisbon, Ohio, and at an early 
age crossed the plains to California, where he spent 
several years. He returned shortly before the war, and 
was engaged in the study of law in the office of Stanton 
& McCook, at Steubenville. At the outbreak of the 
rebellion he promptly raised a company of volunteers, 
and was elected captain of the company, which was the 
first to enter the service from Eastern Ohio. He was 
assigned to the Second Ohio Regiment, and took part in 
the first battle of Bull Run. Upon the reorganization 
of the troops he was appointed major of the Second Ohio, 
and rose by death and resignation of his seniors to the 
rank of colonel. At the battle of Peach Tree Creek, near 
Atlanta, he commanded a brigade. He was in action in 
many of the principal battles of the West, including those 
of Perryville, Stone's River, Lookout Mountain, Mis- 
sionary Ridge, Resaca, etc. On the muster out of the 
Second Ohio, at the close of three years' service, he was 
appointed colonel of the One Hundred and Ninety-fourth 
Ohio, and was ordered to Virginia, where he was assigned 
to command a brigade. He was brevetted a brigadier- 
general at the close of the war. He returned to Steuben- 
ville, whence, after several years' residence, he removed to 
New York City, his present residence. He served six years 
in Congress from the Eighth New York District in the 
Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, and Forty-seventh Congresses. 
3. Rev. Henry G. McCook, D. D., the third son, was 
born July 3, 1837, at New Lisbon, Ohio, and married an 
Ohio lady. Miss Emma C. Horter, of New Lisbon. He 
graduated at Jefferson College. He was a student in 
the Western Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), 
Alleahenv Citv, on the outbreak of the rebellion, and, 



26 



The Fighting McCooks 



having made an engagement to go West to spend his 
summer vacation, stopped at Clinton, DeWitt County, 
111. Here he was actively engaged in raising troops for 
the service until the first battle of Bull Run, when he 
enlisted as a private soldier, stumped the county to raise 
troops, and was mustered into the Forty-first Illinois as 
first lieutenant. He was appointed chaplain of the 
regiment, and returned home for ordination by the 
Presbytery of Steubenville, Ohio. He served for less than 
a year, and resigned, with the intention of taking another 
position in the army; but, convinced that he could serve 
his country best in a public position at home, returned 
to his church at Clinton. He was subsequently a home 
missionary and pastor in St. Louis, Mo., whence he was 
called to Philadelphia in 1869, where he continues pastor 
of one of the most prominent churches of the East. He 
is the author of a number of popular theological and 
ecclesiastical books, but is particularly known as a 
naturalist. His studies of ants and spiders, on whose 
habits he has written several important books and 
numerous papers, have made his name well known among 
the naturalists of Europe and America. 

4. Commander Roderick Sheldon McCook, U. S. N., 
was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, March 10, 1839. He 
graduated at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1859, and 
his first service was off the Congo River, Africa, whence 
he was sent home with a prize crew in charge of a 
captured slaver. From 1861 to 1865 he took active part 
in aggressive operations before New Berne, Wilmington, 
Charleston, Fort Fisher, and on the James River. At 
New Berne he bore an active and successful part in the 
battle on land. He offered himself and the services of 



The Fighting McCooks 27 

his marines to the land force in moving a battery of guns 
from his vessel. With this battery he took a conspicuous 
part in the conflict, and had the honor of receiving the 
surrender of a Confederate regiment of infantry, probably 
the only surrender of this sort which occurred during 
the Civil War. During his arduous services with monitors, 
particularly the "Canonicus," at Fort Fisher, he seri- 
ously impaired his health. He was engaged in the 
operations on the James River, and also those ending in 
the surrender of Charleston. He attained the grade of 
commander September 25, 1873. His last service was in 
lighthouse duty on the Ohio River, on whose banks, in the 
family plot in the Steubenville cemetery, his remains are 
buried. Failing in health, he was retired from active 
service February 23, 1885, when he went to Vineland, 
N. J., seeking restoration of strength in the occupations 
of farm life. His death was caused by being thrown 
from his buggy upon his head, sustaining injuries which 
resulted in suffusion of the brain. He married Miss 
Elizabeth Sunderland, of Steubenville, Ohio, who, with 
one son, survives him. 

5. The fifth son and sixth child. Rev. Prof. John James 
McCook, was born at New Lisbon, Ohio, February 4, 1843. 
He served as lieutenant in the First Virginia Volunteers 
during a short campaign in West Virginia, a regiment 
recruited almost exclusively from Ohio. There were so 
many volunteers from this state that its quota of 
regiments was immediately filled, and many of its 
citizens entered the service with regiments from other 
States. He was at Kelleysville, one of the earliest 
engagements of the war. He graduated at Trinity 
College, Hartford; began the study of medicine, but 



28 The Fighting McCooKs 

abandoned it to enter the Protestant Episcopal ministry. 
He was rector of St. John's, Detroit, and is now of St. 
John's, East Hartford. He is distinguished as a linguist, 
and is the author of a witty booklet, "Pat and the 
Council." He is at present Professor of Modern 
Languages in Trinity College, Hartford. 



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